Gold traders were pretty confused yesterday. The FOMC
minutes caught many on the wrong foot. In principal the early
December FOMC meeting was already forgotten, as the subsequent
speech from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t indicate any surprising
insight. Taking a closer look to the minutes now one can see,
however, that Bernanke’s speech a month ago, was likely an
interpretation of his own viewpoint, which obviously doesn’t
fully match with the opinion of several other members of the
committee. Whilst he doesn’t support the idea of an end of the
Bond purchase program this year, other Fed members do. This
time, it was obviously not only Jeffrey Lacker who expressed
reservations. Only few members would like to see the buying to
be finished at the end of 2013, while several others are
inclined to act even earlier (slowing or stopping the program).
Market participants are now puzzled: How many could finally
vote for an earlier end on the next meeting?

Since gold stopped its recovery attempt just $1.5 ahead
of our1696.00stabilisation key, it
reversed direction sharply. Yesterday, it violated our critical
$1665 near-term pivot, which means the metal is now likely to
retest its December $1635.50 trough and then the1616.00support/potential. The negative view
will remain, as long as the1670.00resistance stands.